Texas man connected to Target's massive data breach

Police in Texas say Target believes a man arrested for credit card fraud last year is connected to the massive retail store data breach that might've compromised the information of more than 110 million customers.

KEYE: "Georgetown police arrested this man, Guo Xing Chen, around the time of that breach. ... Police say they arrested him in mid-December after he had reportedly used some stolen debit and credit cards."

KVUE: "Officers say before, he used stolen cards to buy thousands of dollars of Target Visa cards and Apple iPads at a store in Temple."

According to USA Today, information from an affidavit says one Target employee alleged Chen purchased $700 in gift cards using plastic currency linked to another name the day he was arrested.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, Georgetown police say Chen has been in jail since Dec. 12, and for some unspecified reason investigators at Target believe he is connected to the $70 million Target security breach, though Georgetown police say they aren't convinced he initiated the data theft.

That breach was first reported back in December. Since then, reports have indicated that Target might've missed the initial alarms set off by hackers, as reported in Businessweek . According to Fox Business, Target's CEO has stepped down in the subsequent fallout.

The Austin American-Statesman reports Chen is being held in the Williamson County Jail with bail set at $40,000.

I find it interesting that everyone is jumping on the "crucify Target" bandwagon after it's data breach. Why? because it's a big box retailer. Easy to complain about them. Did you know that only a month prior to that Adobe systems was hacked and had the personal information and credit card info of 150 million user posted online? Nope, it isn't as scandalous or newsworthy as Target. Neiman Marcus and Michael's were hacked the same way as Target, but very little has been said about those.

And for those that can't read. Target's CEO resigned. He may have been urged to do so, but he resigned. He was NOT fired.

Why is his bail only $40,000? Shouldn't it be $4,000,000.00 or no bail? THis ******* is not only dangerous but has the ability to vanish with someone elses money and identity. This crime effected millions of people and anyone connected to it should be tried for theft, rape, and all of the other things that identity theft does to people. It's horrid!

As much as I enjoyed shopping at target, this should have been an easy catch and fix for them, yet they ignored the obvious alarms. Target should have been proactive with this. I destroyed my target card and cancelled immediately, I would never go in that store again with plastic, this was a complete outrage for Target shoppers and there should be a class aciton suit against them for gross negligence...............

I hope that you don't shop at Walmart either. My wife's identity was stolen, and thousands of dollars were drained from our savings/checking accounts for purchases of several big screen televisions and computers that were "purchased" from the same Walmart located hundreds of miles from us. We were informed by police and our bank that a huge percentage of this type of crime is traced directly to Walmart store employees.

Chinese they are coming across the border as well, according to the border patrol last year they caught ten Chinese nationals coming in that way. We do not know who is in this country, or how secure we are. I still say and I told Target the same thing, think it is an inside job. What are the FBI doing if it took the Texas police to catch one of the thieves, does not say much for the SS and FBI and or any of the big guys does it.